American parents have full-time jobs policing inappropriate content available to their children through online avenues, but now, thanks to progressive activists, they’ll have to add their local libraries to the top of the list of unsafe places for their kids.
New Jersey state Senators introduced a bill that critics say will make sexually explicit material available in school and public libraries that would have otherwise been banned under the state’s obscenity laws. Democratic New Jersey state Senators Andrew Zwicker and M. Teresa Ruiz filed NJ senate bill 2421, “Freedom to Read Act,” Jan. 29.
“The freedom to read is a human right, constitutionally protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, and individuals have the right to free inquiry and the right to form their own opinions. The freedom to read does not require a person to agree with topics or themes within a material, but instead allows a reader to explore and engage with differing perspectives to form and inform their own views,” the legislation states.
SB 2421 states its goal is to establish “requirements for library material in public school libraries and public libraries” and “protects school library media specialists and librarians from harassment.”
Let’s call this for what it is, “Freedom to Distribute Porn Act”.
— Courage Is A Habit (@CourageHabit) February 5, 2024
The bill makes it more challenging for parents and other concerned citizens to remove the material once it makes it into schools and public libraries due to the new removal process.
SB 2421 gives the New Jersey State Board of Education (BoE) control over children’s reading content in schools and public libraries. The 13 members of the BoE are appointed by the Governor, not the voters, and are allowed to serve six-year terms.
The BoE will have control of “the curation of library material within a school library,” according to the bill. The state will require that library content “should present diverse points of view in the collection as a whole” and “promote the free expression and free access to ideas by students by prohibiting the censorship of library material.” (ROOKE: Montana Child Trafficking Story Exposes GOP Weakness In Protecting American Children)
New Jersey Senate No. 2421 Sec. 4
If parents find the material included in the library to be inappropriate, they must file a claim to have it removed. The school’s administration must create a panel within ten days to determine whether the content will remain available.
The new advisory board must include a teacher from the school system, a parent with a child in the school system who did not file the claim, a librarian or library specialist, the school principal and a representative selected by the BoE. If the petition was filed by a student in the school system rather than a parent, the panel will also include a student from the school, but it can’t be the petitioner.
New Jersey Senate No. 2421 Sec. 5
The bill argues that school library media specialists and librarians are more qualified than parents and other concerned citizens to determine appropriate reading material because they “receive extensive professional training that prepares them to develop and curate collections designed to meet the broad and varied interests and needs of their communities and students.”
“School library media specialists and librarians are essential members of the community; as trained professionals, they help young people of all backgrounds find and interpret the information they need to succeed in school and prepare for college, careers, and life,” the legislation states.
“Despite this, school library media specialists and librarians have been targeted, harassed, and defamed for providing young people access to library material,” SB 2421 continues. “Therefore, it is necessary and proper for the Legislature to protect the freedom of New Jersey’s residents to read, for school libraries and public libraries to acquire and maintain materials without external limitations, to recognize that school library media specialists and librarians are trained to curate and develop collections, and to protect school library media specialists and librarians from unnecessary and unwarranted harassment and defamation for performance of their duties.”
Parents are expected to trust professionals the state hires to decide if something is age-appropriate or of “pedagogical value” for their child. The issue with letting “professionals” control the standard of decency is that several states have already shown a lack of understanding of what age-appropriate means. (ROOKE: American Parents Stood Up To The Trans Cult And Won Big In Maine)
For example, Indiana Child Protective Services lists several so-called age-appropriate sexual behaviors the state expects children to experience in an instructional video about identifying child abuse and neglect.
The video states it’s normal for children five years old and younger to “explore genitals” and “experience pleasure.” Indiana CPS claims children six to eight-years-old will already be masturbating and have questions about other sexual behaviors. By nine, the state fully expects a child to have an “increased experimentation with sexual behaviors and romantic relationships” and need knowledge about “sexual materials,” “relationships and sexual behaviors” and discussing “sexual acts” with their peers.
Indiana Department of Child Services (CPS) claim it’s appropriate for 0-8 year-old kids to m*stur*ate. They also say 9-year-olds will need information on s*xu*l materials (p*rn). They recommend discussing gender with all ages.
They’re setting the stage to get CPS involved if a… pic.twitter.com/k2VHXFruTd
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 5, 2024
Children are not sexual beings. Parents understand that if a nine-year-old child is experimenting with sexual behaviors, that is less a sign of normal behavior and more a warning that they might be a victim of abuse.
The idea pushed by progressive activists is that “scary” parents who know nothing about how to educate their child are showing up to school board and city council meetings and demanding that material they deem inappropriate be removed from the bookshelves of their local libraries. These activists want to stop the pushback by creating a new process by which these parents must abide to eliminate this content.
MSNBC host Joy Reid pushed this theory on her program in January during a debate with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice. Reid claimed parents weaponize books like “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by taking out-of-context portions and reading them out loud at these meetings to cause a frenzy. (ROOKE: State Follows Blueprint To Legalize New Form Of Child Trafficking)
“It is unacceptable for a child to be able to access a book in their tax-payer funded school library that discusses graphic ‘anal rape’ and ‘pedophilia’ as it is detailed in ‘All Boys Aren’t Blue.’ Context is irrelevant,” Justice told the Daily Caller. “There are no circumstances where a child should be reading about this. The fact that other organizations continue to attack parents for protecting their children from this obscene material is mind-blowing. Despite efforts to devalue parental rights, Moms for Liberty will continue to fight for children.”
Parents have a divine right to protect their children from sexual deviance that would harm them. They should see any move by the state to perpetuate the idea that children should have access to sexually explicit materials under the guise that it would make them more inclusive as a big red flag.